Being With the Brothers Next Door

Evernight
Publishing

www.evernightpublishing.com

Copyright© 2013
Jenika
Snow

 
ISBN: 978-1-77130-563-1

Cover Artist: Sour Cherry Designs

Editor:
Karyn
White

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal.
 
No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

DEDICATION

It isn't your dirty little secret if everyone knows about it.

As always I want to thank
Evernight
Publishing for being so freaking wonderful through the entire writing process. To my family, friends, and readers, you guys rock my socks off, and without you none of this would be possible.

BEING WITH THE BROTHERS NEXT DOOR

Wickedly Taboo, 4

Jenika
Snow

Copyright © 2013

Chapter One

2002

“Sasha, if you don’t quit hanging around with us, you’re going to get hurt.”

Sasha had to run in order to keep up with her brother Rian, and his best friends, Jonas and Tanner Ashbury. She might only be twelve, but hanging out with Rian and his two best friends was a lot more fun than playing with dolls at
Seana’s
house. Sasha pumped her legs faster trying to keep up with their long strides. It was Saturday, and they were all going to the lake to watch the girls in bikinis. Well, the boys were. Sasha just tagged along. The guys were rounding the bend that would take them right to the lake when her foot caught a rock, and she fell forward. She went down hard, and pain lanced up her knees as they met the ground. Instantly tears sprang forward, and when she looked down at her knees and saw the bloody, torn skin, she cried harder. A moment later she saw a set of sneakers come into her blurry view, and she raised her head to stare at Tanner. He scowled down at her, but when he saw her scrapes his gaze softened. Jonas and Rian came running up behind him seconds later, and embarrassment washed through her.

I told you that you’d get hurt.” Rian stood beside Tanner and scowled. “Mom’s going to be so mad.”

“No, don’t tell her, Rian. She won’t let me come along anymore.”

Tanner gripped her under the arms and helped her up. Jonas stared at her knees.

“You don’t need to be coming with us anyway, Sasha. You’re too young to be hanging out with us anyway.” Rian crossed his arms over his chest and narrowed his eyes at her. If not for Jonas and Tanner telling her older brother that her tagging along was fine, Rian would have made her stay behind most likely. “
You going
to be okay?” He gestured to her legs, and she nodded. “All right then, come on.”

Rian didn’t wait for a reply, just turned and started back for the lake. Tanner and Jonas stared down at her.

“You guys don’t like me hanging out either, do you?” She had known them her whole life. Even if they were three years older than she was, they never made her feel like Rian’s annoying little sister. They both watched her with the same hazel eyes that were more green than brown. They might have been fraternal twins, but they looked so much alike they could have passed for identical.

Tanner exhaled and ran a hand over his short dark hair, the same color and length as Jonas’s. “Come on, sweet pea.” He had always called her that endearment, and her heart gave a little pitter-patter at the nickname. Jonas took her hand, and they made their way to the lake. Even if the guys were going there to flirt with the girls and hoped to catch a glimpse of their bikini tops popping off, Sasha did like spending time with them. Tanner and Jonas never complained about her presence, and they never said she couldn’t do what they did. Rian was the only one who was annoyed that their mom made him watch over her when she tagged along. But to be honest, she crushed hard on Tanner and Jonas, and because of that would have gotten dirty and hurt just to be near them. The only problem was the brothers didn’t see her as anything more than their best friend’s little sister.

****

2004

High school was like stagnant water. It smelled and was toxic. Sasha tightened her hand around the strap of her backpack and turned around to see Tanner talking with some blonde girl off to the side. She wore a skirt that was the length of some of Sasha’s underwear, and her top, if it could be called that, stretched so tight across her boobs Sasha could see the outline of her nipples. Just seeing Tanner touching another girl had her already hating the first day of her freshman year. The cherry on top of the shit sundae would be to see Jonas doing the same thing. Even two years later she wanted the Ashbury brothers like she wanted to breathe.

Sasha slammed the door of Rian’s beloved Mustang and smirked when he climbed out of the car and narrowed his eyes at her. He treated that car like it was made out of diamonds and gold. Sasha admitted it was a beautiful piece of machinery, though, what with its glossy midnight blue paint job and completely restored frame. He had worked hard on it with their father over the past couple of years, but Rian was an asshole on the best of days, and today was one of those days. Anything she could do to piss him off made her feel loads better.

Rian said, “If you don’t behave, Sasha, I’m going to make you ride the bus.” All she did was roll her eyes at him, because they both knew their dad wouldn’t make her ride the bus while he drove in the car he poured money into to restore. Rian’s expression told her he knew the same thing. He walked toward the front of the school, and several guys came up to him and slapped him on the back. It was a move she had seen Tanner and Jonas do countless times. She noticed girls off to the side start giggling when her brother walked by, and she couldn’t help but wrinkle her nose.

Sasha looked at the front of the high school, and unease knotted her stomach.
 
Pushing all her worries aside, she breathed in deeply. She was so damn nervous about what lay behind those ominous double doors of Hayven Hill High. She made her way toward the school, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her. Jonas and Tanner stepped in front of her, and she couldn’t help but smile even if all she could picture was their lips on other girls. It wasn’t like she hadn’t seen enough of that over the years, but right now she had a fresh visual of Tanner doing that exact thing just feet from her. It had her smile faltering.

“You look about ready to sprint, sweet pea.” Tanner grinned down at her, and Jonas gave him a light shove.

“Leave her alone, Tanner,” Jonas said seriously, but his lips twitched with suppressed amusement. “Come on, Sasha.” Jonas wrapped his muscular arm around her shoulder and steered her toward the front entrance. With Tanner on one side and Jonas on the other she felt her belly tighten and her heart race. Rian called out from her left, and they stopped. He ran up to them and ruffled her hair.

“Knock it off.” She shoved Rian away, and the four of them headed inside. Girls stopped and stared at the three guys, but Sasha couldn’t blame them. Not only had Rian, Tanner, and Jonas been on the Varsity football team last year, and most likely would be again this year, they had bodies to suit the somewhat violent sport. They were also popular and insanely attractive, even if she had the ick factor going on when thinking anything remotely nice about her brother.

“I’ll catch you guys later,” Rian called out behind him as he made his way to a girl leaning against the lockers. She knew enough about her whorish brother to know he didn’t have a girlfriend, but had plenty of girls.

“What a man-whore.” Sasha said it with all the love she had for her brother, and Tanner and Jonas chuckled. The thing was, as grossed out as Sasha was that her brother was a “ladies’ man” Tanner and Jonas were the same way. How many times had she looked out her bedroom window and seen the twins bringing homes their dates? With their parents working nightshift, she saw their “dates” more than she cared to admit. A few girls came up to them and flirted heavily with Tanner and Jonas, telling them how much they missed them over the summer and how much they hoped to “catch up” this year. All of it was extremely nauseating.

“You know where to go?” Tanner looked down at her, and She nodded, and looked between him and Jonas. Damn them for being so attractive, but double damn her for wanting not one, but two guys who were totally off limits. She waved them off, acting indifferent, but inside she was scared to death of this new world and frightened by how her emotions for Tanner and Jonas were increasing with each passing year. She was too young to want both of them the way she did, but then again they had been a constant presence in her life, and she felt safe and comforted around them.

Sasha found her locker and fumbled with the lock. Once she managed to get it open she shoved the books inside and shut the metal door. She should have kept her back to the hallway longer, because seeing Tanner and Jonas leaned close to two girls, as if they had orchestrated their identical actions before coming to school, was like a kick to the balls. Well, it would have been if she had any. Why couldn’t she like a guy her own age, one who was just as geeky as she was?

****

2007

The music was blasting, and Sasha couldn’t even hear herself think. The house was packed with more people than she even knew, mainly because Tanner, Jonas, and Rian had invited everyone
they
knew to her graduation party. The had planned it while her parents were out of town, like some kind of secret covert ops, but she couldn’t be upset, not when they had done it all for her.

“Here.” Dani shoved a plastic cup out to her, and some beer sloshed over the rim. “You need to get drunk and quit walking around like you got a stick up your ass.” Leave it to Dani to give it to her straight. “We just graduated, and you just turned eighteen.” Sasha stared at the redhead who had become her friend on the first day of her freshman year. That seemed so long ago now. Sasha looked around and took a sip. Wrinkling her nose at the bitter flavor, she was about to set the cup aside when Dani lifted it to her mouth.

“Damn, Sasha. Just drink one cup. It’ll help you enjoy
your
graduation party.” Dani scanned the crowd, and even with the music blaring through the house in loud, angry beats, Sasha heard the pleasurable sigh leave her best friend’s lips. “I mean, if three of the hottest guys on the planet threw me a graduation party, you better believe I’d be thanking them all.
Night.
Long.” Sasha scrunched her nose. “Okay, minus Rian since he’s your brother and all, but Tanner and Jonas…” The names left Dani on a blissful sigh. Sasha rolled her eyes and drank a couple more swallows of the nasty, bitter liquid. She followed her friend’s gaze and sighed herself when Tanner and Jonas made their way through the crowd.

It was clear Tanner was already three sheets to the wind by the way he swerved and was overly jubilant. Jonas said something into his ear and veered off in the other direction. The girls split up, half going toward Jonas, and the other half going to Tanner. It was a familiar scene, and one Sasha still hated witnessing. It didn’t matter that Tanner and Jonas were now in their third year of college. They came home just as much as Rian did, and her feelings for the twins had only escalated with the passing years. But Sasha wasn’t a fool to think they would ever want anything more with her, especially when they had cheerleaders and gymnasts throwing themselves at them. Rian had disappeared upstairs with some brunette over half an hour ago, and she did
not
want her thoughts going there. Washing her mind clean of Rian with a deep swallow of beer, she focused her attention on Tanner. Here she was, with her dull brown hair and blue eyes that weren’t as pretty and vibrant as she’d like, wanting brothers that saw her as Rian did. Like their sister. She also didn’t have the overflowing busts like half the girls she was sure Jonas and Tanner were used to. Throw all of that together with the fact she was plain old Sasha Marsh, their best friend’s little sister, and she knew she was screwed on all accounts.

“I’m
gonna
get another beer. You want one?”

Sasha was just about to shake her head, but she finished off what was left in her cup, handed it to
Dani
, and nodded. This was her graduation party, so why the hell shouldn’t she enjoy herself? Dani smiled widely and was gone a second later. Sasha leaned against the wall and enjoyed the view of Tanner. As if he felt her gaze, his head turned toward her, and his eyes held hers. His smile was lopsided, and then he was pushing off the wall and moving toward her.

Her reaction was instantaneous: pulse racing, sweaty palms, and a tingling sensation located right between her thighs. He stopped right in front of her, and she nearly groaned with the concentrated aroma of a mixture of his cologne and the natural scent that was everything Tanner, along with whatever hard liquor he had been drinking. That last shouldn’t have been attractive, but it was dammit.